Law Office Technology

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Law Office Technology

• Why it Needs to Be in Your Schools Curriculum
  and How to Get it There

Kenneth Hirsh Director of the Law Library and
Information Technology and Clinical Professor of
Law, University of Cincinnati College of
Law Wayne Miller Assistant Dean for Academic
Technologies, Duke University School of Law David
Whelan Manager, Legal Information, Law Society of
Upper Canada
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The Last Ten Years

• David Whelan

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Slow Start

• Early promise of Application Service Providers
  goes bust with Silicon Valley
• Windows XP Pro debuts in 2001 and ends up the
  significant business desktop OS for the decade
• Typical lawyer has a Dell desktop running Windows
  98 and either Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect

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Document Driven
2009 Lawyer Usage 95 Microsoft Word 30 Corel
WordPerfect 1 Open Office
2001 Lawyer Usage 55 Microsoft Word 44 Corel
WordPerfect
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2
007 2008 2009 2010
Source Wikipedia.org, 2009 American Bar
Association Legal Technology Survey
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Same Old Swiss Army Knife

• High adoption of Microsoft Office has led
  Microsoft products to dominate in other areas
• Microsoft Outlook top product for

E-mail
Contacts
Calendaring
Customer Relationship Management
Practice Management
Encryption
Anti-Spam
Source 2009 American Bar Association Legal
Technology Survey
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What about legal technology?

• Industry has matured in the 2000s
• Fewer products, higher product versions, except
  in niche or emerging areas
• Increased focus on enterprise versions
• Increased curiosity about legal vertical
• Acquisitions by larger companies focusing on
  professional services workflow
• Software-as-a-Service model gains traction

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Consolidation
Elite
Netdocuments
CourtExpress
TimeMatters
Livenote
Thomson Reuters
LexisNexis
PCLaw
ProDoc
HotDocs
DealProof
LexisNexis
Westlaw
CaseMap
Findlaw
Juris Financials
ProLaw
PlumTree Portals
FinPlan Divorce Planner
Applied Discovery
Global Securities Information (GSI)
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Large Firms are Enterprise Business
About 40 of law school graduates go into a firm
with 101 or more lawyers
About 33 of law school graduates go into a firm
with 2-10 lawyers

• National Law Journal Top 250

Source National Law Journal, NALP
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Enterprise IT
Microsoft Centric Network OS, Desktop OS, E-mail
Server, Virtual Server, Sharepoint
Business Apps Integrating complex business
applications as well as custom legal applications
International Help desk sourced for 24 hour
coverage, data centers co-located with in
multiple sites
Cost Recovery Developing apps for resale as
services to clients, licensing to vendors
Budget Firms with more than 500 lawyers are
budgeting an average of 14.8 million on IT
Source 2007 ILTA Technology Survey
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Tech and the Solo or Small Firm

• Simpler but not necessarily rudimentary
• Solo and small firm lawyer usage similar to 100
  firm lawyer except
• Less likely to use a smart phone with wireless
  e-mail
• Less likely to have a server-based environment
• More likely to use a thumb drive
• Typical lawyer will have a Dell desktop running
  Windows XP, Office 2007 and Internet Explorer,
  and have broadband Internet.

Source 2007 ILTA Technology Survey2009
American Bar Association Legal Technology Survey
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Opportunities

• Adoption of legal technology continues to lag
• Ignored in purchase of consumer technology
• Law office technology with lower adoption
• Metadata removal tools
• Document management
• Practice management software
• Conflicts checking

Source 2009 American Bar Association Legal
Technology Survey
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Opportunities

• When would you recommend that an attorney begin
  using practice management software?

As soon as you open your doors. Practice
management software is mission critical.
Source February 27, 2009 survey of 90 solo
lawyers on the Solosez discussion list hosted by
the American Bar Association
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Enable the Evolution
Law Student
Lawyer
Laptop Windows Microsoft Office Web
Browser Facebook E-mail
Desktop / Laptop Windows Microsoft Office Web
Browser Practice Management Productivity Communica
tion
Wireless device Ubuntu / S-a-a-S E-Filing Web
Browser Web 2.0 Marketing Practice
Management Productivity Communication
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The Law Office Technology Course at Duke Law
School

• Kenneth Hirsh

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Lessons Learned

• Wayne Miller

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Know your audience

• Survey students, before and after
• Engage their summer experience in class
• Read your evaluations!

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Be prepared to make changes

• Its difficult during the semester plan ahead
• Identify the most important changes and
  concentrate on those (maybe a theme suggests
  itself?)

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Plan for Succession

• Of three founders, two are no longer available
• Invite potential co-instructors to sit in
• The content is more important than the individual

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We started small

• We started the course designed for a small firm
  or an individual
• Covers all the essentials
• Addressed ourselves to basic software
• Large firms insulate lawyers from tech issues, we
  thought!

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We retooled for large

• More emphasis on concepts (conflicts checking,
  for instance)
• More abstract discussion of software categories
• But how to engage students in class?

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Spring 2007 Spring 2008 Spring 2009
Introduction and Overview of Technology in Law Practice Introduction Introduction
Office Practice Administrative Tools External Communications and Introduction to Ethical Considerations External Communications and Introduction to Ethical Considerations
Case and Litigation Management Tools Office Practice - Administrative Tools Office Practice - Administrative Tools
Overview of Knowledge Management Overview of Knowledge Management Electronic Filing and Service
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Spring 2007 Spring 2008 Spring 2009
Client Communications Large and Complex Case Management Large and Complex Case Management
Presentation Technology Information Literacy Information Media Literacy
Information Literacy The Internet Beyond Legal Research The Internet Beyond Legal Research
The Internet Beyond Legal Research Presentation Technology Presentation Technology
Electronic Filing and Service Electronic Filing and Service Overview of Knowledge Management
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Spring 2007 Spring 2008 Spring 2009
Case and Litigation Management Tools Large and Complex Case Management Large and Complex Case Management
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Assignments

• Exercises
• Meta-data scrubbing
• Negotiation at a distance
• Business research
• Presentation

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Assignments

• Final Project (60 grade)
• Students work in groups of 2 or 3
• 30 for in-class presentation
• 30 for final paper

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Sample topics

• Extranets
• Technology in law firm disaster planning
• Attorneys blogging tools, ethical issues, as
  attorney advertising, role in high-profile trials
• The Blackberry and similar devices - legal
  implications of the technology social issues for
  lawyers.
• More to be posted on Blackboard

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Grading for Final Project

• Graded by the following criteria timely
  completion, thoroughness, creativity, appropriate
  use of technology in the presentation, relevance
  to and reflection on issues facing the legal
  profession, and appropriate selection and
  documentation of sources.

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Videoconferenced guests

• Law librarian history of technology in law
• Ediscovery attorney an economics consultant
  ediscovery concerns and current business
  practices
• Courtroom 21 future of courtroom and assistive
  technologies

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Midsized firm tech comm.

• Helps me I can be IT director rather than a
  partner of the firm
• We discuss what the approach should be for our
  firm
• Changed course dynamic, helping (along with a
  morning slot!) with the engagement of students in
  the class
• Helped focus guest speakers, our exercises and
  in-class discussion

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Next full-scale sim?

• No, too much to undertake
• Exercises are the easiest element to focus
  narrowly on a simulation
• Might help with final projects, too